Scottish artist Douglas Gordon (b. 1966) investigates time, mortality, collective memory, and identity through photography, installations, video art, as well as sculpture and texts. By exploring a variety of mediums and art forms, Gordon readjusts scenes, tinkers with time, and appropriates cultural sources. Skulls are a recurring subject in Gorgon´s production: for several years, the artist has been collecting skulls, into which he has five-pointed stars incised for each year of his life. Taken from Re-Object/Mythos, a portfolio of 6, Fourty is a photograph on baryta paper with cut-out holes, mounted on acrylic mirror. The work depicts a skull incised with forty stars, one for each year of the artist’s life at the time of its creation. The cutout eyes disclose a mirror, transforming the photograph into a contemporary memento mori which eerily embraces the viewer.
“ If you want to find the truth in something, take it apart piece by piece, then put it back together with the detail of a forensic scientist. „